1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a packaging container for an orthodontic mouthpiece, which is for packaging an orthodontic mouthpiece.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
In an orthodontic field, a medical treatment for correcting a teeth alignment and an occlusion has been conventionally carried out by installing a bracket to a front surface or a back surface of teeth, inserting and connecting an arch wire to a wire slot of the bracket, and utilizing an elastic restoring force of the arch wire.
In recent years, in addition to the orthodontic treatment using the bracket and the arch wire mentioned above, an orthodontic treatment using a detachable and transparent orthodontic mouthpiece has been going to be carried out. The orthodontic treatment is a method of correcting a teeth alignment and an occlusion little by little by newly preparing orthodontic mouthpieces having changed shapes in correspondence to a condition of an arrangement of the patient's teeth per a period from about two weeks to one month and sending them to the patient so as to replace, thereby utilizing the elastic restoring forces of the respective orthodontic mouthpieces. Since the transparent mouthpiece is installed without using any bracket and any wire, it is possible to treat in an inconspicuous manner. Further, since the mouthpieces can be easily attached and detached, there is an advantage that the mouthpieces can be detached at a time of taking a meal or cleaning the teeth. Therefore, the mouthpieces are frequently used for comparatively simple cases that it is unnecessary to extract a tooth.
The orthodontic mouthpiece used in the orthodontic treatment has been conventionally packaged, for example, by a packaging bag Y for the orthodontic mouthpiece, the packaging bag Y having a sealing portion Ya sealing the orthodontic mouthpiece and employing polyethylene as a raw material as illustrated in FIG. 6, or a packaging container Z for the orthodontic mouthpiece, the packaging container Z constituted by a plastic packaging container main body Za having an accommodating portion Zaa which accommodates the orthodontic mouthpiece and has a U-shaped transverse cross section, and a sealing seal Zb sealing an opening of the accommodating portion as illustrated in FIG. 7. However, in the case of packaging the orthodontic mouthpiece by the packaging bag Y for the orthodontic mouthpiece, a protection of the orthodontic mouthpiece is insufficient and there is a risk that the orthodontic mouthpiece is damaged at a time of carrying since the packaging bag is weak in a shock from an external portion. On the other hand, in the case of packaging the orthodontic mouthpiece by the orthodontic mouthpiece packaging container Z constituted by the plastic packaging container main body Za having the accommodating portion Zaa which accommodates the orthodontic mouthpiece and has the U-shaped transverse cross section, and the sealing seal Zb sealing the opening of the accommodating portion, the orthodontic mouthpiece can be accommodated in the accommodating portion Zaa of the plastic packaging container main body Za. Therefore, a risk that the orthodontic mouthpiece is damaged at a time of carrying is low. Further, it is possible to easily unseal by peeling the sealing seal Zb. However, since the sealing seal Zb can not seal again the opening of the accommodating portion of the packaging container main body Za once the sealing seal Zb is unsealed, it is burdensome to independently prepare a plastic storage container constituted by an accommodating portion main body for accommodating the orthodontic mouthpiece, a lid portion closing the accommodating portion main body, and a hinge portion bonding the accommodating portion main body and the lid portion, in preparation for the case of detaching the orthodontic mouthpiece, for example, during a meal or during a teeth cleaning work (for example, refer to patent document 1). Further, even in the case that such a storage container is prepared, it normally takes a long period of time over half year to carry out the orthodontic treatment using the orthodontic mouthpiece. Therefore, there has been a problem that contamination and bacteria are adhered to an inner portion of the storage container during a continuous use, and the inner portion of the container tends to come to an unsanitary state.